Australia to send ‘boat people’ to Papua New Guinea

Australian ad warning boat people to stay away (AFP)

Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced that any asylumseeker who arrives by boat without a visa will have “no chance” ofbeing resettled there as a refugee. Instead, they will be sentdirectly to neighboring Papua New Guinea and its Manus Islanddetention center. According to Rudd:

“From now on, any asylum-seeker who arrives inAustralia by boat will have no chance of being settled inAustralia as refugees. … If they are found to be genuinerefugees they will be resettled in Papua New Guinea — an emergingeconomy with a strong future, a robust democracy which is also asignatory to the United Nations refugees convention.”

The number of boat people that arrived from Sri Lanka, Indonesia andother southeast Asian nations has totaled 15,610 so far in 2013,almost approaching the 17,202 that arrived in the entire year in 2012.

Kevin Rudd has only just become prime minister, having ousted JuliaGillard, the country’s first female prime minister, who offended a lotof people by calling anyone who disagreed with her policies acall anyone who disagrees with his policies a “racist.” However, Ruddousted Gillard within their own party, Australia’s Labor Party,largely on the issue of dealing with the flood of boat migrants, andhe’s wasted no time announcing this new, highly controversial refugeepolicy.

Rudd said that Australia would pay the government of Papua New Guineaan unspecified sum of money under a so-called “Regional SettlementArrangement,” and that the deal would be reviewed after 12 months.

On Saturday, Australian authorities intercepted the first boatsmuggling refugees since the law was passed. It was sailing near theChristmas Islands and was crammed full with 81 people, who will betaken to the sparsely populated jungle island of Manus, which is apart of Papua New Guinea. Global Post and CNN and International Business Times